Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) over energy consumption by cryptocurrency miners seems unlikely to ever end. Miners recently welcomed a new member to shoulder some of the hate and join the blockchain planet-killing team: digital art collectors. 

In general, energy-related conversations about cryptocurrency mining almost exclusively focus on Bitcoin, forcing it to bear almost all the blame and hate. Obviously this is fitting since it’s the largest proof-of-work network. But now and then, one might think that Ethereum could also shoulder some of the ridicule as the second-largest proof-of work network. And thanks to non-fungible token (NFT) art, it does now. 

Twitter exploded with furiously drafted tweets about the “ irresponsible carbon footprint” and “catastrophically high energy consumption” supposedly caused single handedly by NFTs. 

Random fans joined the mele to subtweet and shame artists who participated in “the cryptoart thing.” Taking the cue, one musical artist said they have “no interest in creating NFTs unless Ethereum cuts their energy consumption.”

The conversation predictably deteriorated into loosely adjacent discussions about the United States’ awful energy policy and hot takes about how “The Cloud” needs to become much more energy efficient too. 

Per usual, Bitcoin mining also received its weekly dose of mainstream media hate in an interview aired by CNBC where entrepreneur Jason Calacanis (who admitted to owning some bitcoin) rehearsed every stereotype about the dirty, wasteful, and generally evil energy appetite of bitcoin mining. 

Anthony Pompliano rebutted several of Calacanis’ claims, but the entire segment emanated a powerful vibe of two people arguing over whether or not the Earth is flat.

Adding insult to NFT investors’ injuries, hundreds of thousands of dollars in NFT art were stolen from customers on Nifty Gateway over the weekend. The company said the owners of the compromised accounts had not enabled two-factor authentication, which resulted in the hacks and theft. 

Somehow, things still got worse for NFT-ers. Multiple large cryptocurrency- and NFT-related Twitter accounts were banned around the peak of social media’s latest NFT outage cycle. Twitter restored the accounts several hours later, and the reasons for the temporary deletions weren’t offered. But lots of followers speculated the bans were at least partially triggered by anti-digital art crusaders reporting those accounts en masse. 

Ultimately, whether the hate is directed at digital art on Ethereum or digital gold on Bitcoin, energy consumption critics are very unimaginative in their critiques and seem to lean on environmental outrage as a convenient excuse to hate cryptocurrency-related things instead of expressing genuine concern over internet money and the future of our planet.

Digital Currency Group-owned mining company Foundry ended the beta phase for its mining pool last week, marking an important moment for North America-based mining companies.

Foundry’s beta pool launched five months ago and already ranked in the top 10 pools by hashrate globally. With even more institutional clients joining its pool, Foundry’s team says being in the top 10 isn’t good enough. It wants to be top 5 or higher. 

Why does Foundry’s pool matter? 

The list of top mining pools has historically been dominated by Asia-based operations. Now, Foundry is mixing things up as a dominant, top-ten pool barely out of its beta phase with plans for continued expansion. 

Across all continents, rapid growth in industrial and retail mining continues. Foundry’s growth is a strong signal of North America’s participation in that trend.

• A small Black Sea territory houses hundreds of “illegal” miners. 

  • Officials in Abkhazia, a small and disputed territory in the Black Sea, have learned their country is home to hundreds of unapproved bitcoin mining facilities, and they’re not happy about it, according to a report from Vice. Hidden in basements, shipping containers, and almost anywhere else, small-scale mining operations have proliferated widely, and officials are determined to crack down. 

• Bitmain is in trouble for Taiwainese hires. 

  • Taiwainese officials are investigating Bitmain over allegations of illegal talent-poaching after the cryptocurrency mining giant reportedly hired hundreds of engineers. Local laws reportedly set strict limits on the allowed interactions between Chinese companies and Taiwanese semiconductor businesses, making Bitmain’s hiring potentially illegal. 

• Bitcoin tops $61,000 then dumps.

  • Bitcoin bulls pushed the leading cryptocurrency’s price up to its mid February levels last week and then even higher over the weekend, briefly trading above $61,000. But the market turned red on Monday. Bitcoin dropped to $54,000 Tuesday. 

• Mining difficulty set to increase almost 2%. 

  • Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustments are set to resume their upward trajectory on Friday after a small downward adjustment the first week in March. Difficulty is set to top 21.8 trillion after the current epoch ends, an increase of nearly 2%, according to BTC.com ’s data. 

• Canaan pre-sales jumped 17% in February.
  

  • Pre-sale volume for Canaan mining machines jumped 17% in February, according to a report. In a statement, the company said its presales to the North American market alone have reached about 120,000 units.

🧭 Hashrate Under Management (HUM): Compass wants to highllight an important metric that helps to clarify who owns what hash power. H.U.M. works to eliminate commonly double-counted hashrate with both mining facilities and mining service companies claimining it. Read more about this metric in our blog post.

🧭 Kazakhstan Mining: Read the unique advantages and challenges Kazakh bitcoin miners face in the Hashr8 research team’s latest report. A valid email address is required to download the report.

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